Letter: Are we at risk of having too many pine martens on the New Forest?
I HAVE just read an article on the pine martens (A&T 19th Jan) in the New Forest and believe me if ever the saying “all the gear and no idea” was ever appropriate, it is now!
I got the impression none of the “team” had ever seen a wild pine marten in the hours of darkness – they are half asleep!
I feel once again we have made the same mistake as we did with the goshawk: there are now too many. I will give the “gos” their due, they only kill when they are hungry. A pine marten will kill just for the hell of it. There is just one thing to their credit: their staple food is squirrels and, for some unknown reason, they prefer grey to red. I worked on an estate in Yorkshire and martens were as common as foxes.
If the goshawk is the phantom of the Forest the pine marten is the XL bully.
PR Whitfield
South Baddesley